23 May 2015
Earlier this week a new Need for Speed game was announced, simply as "Need for Speed", and apparently it will "return to its roots". Now I know the franchise has been around since the mid 90's but from the screenshots and teaser trailer we've seen so far, this definitely looks like a return to the Need for Speed Underground era from the PS2/Xbox generation. More evidence of this from EA is the fact that the game takes place in a "nocturnal open world" and features "deep car customization". Need for Speed Underground 2 (NFSU2) was the first game in the series to contain both of these aspects, which coincidentally was the first NFS game I owned and many fans' favourite in the franchise. So this is a very good thing, it just seems odd for EA to say returning to it's roots.
The main reason for NFSU2's success is the car customization - especially visually. Most racing games only allow performance upgrades and any that feature visual upgrades only allow basic or high level tinkering such as paint jobs and adding a spoiler. The visual customization in NFSU2 was so intricate and detailed you can spend hours on a car. Hoods, roof scoops, decals, vinyls, neon, spinners, speakers, and hell even hydraulics could all be added and modified to make the boyhood racer of your dreams. And the best part is that it was a requirement to complete the story mode. Between sets of races there were magazine shoots for your car to aim to take the front cover! It's suddenly dawned on me that with magazines slowly dying, we may never see a feature like this in a game ever again. To achieve this one of your cars needed to reach a certain star level (usually a whole number as the scale was from 0.00 to 10.00). To reach level 10 required using every bit of customization possible, and achieving this was arguably more satisfying than winning any race. I remember maxing out an Mitsubishi Evo 8 on my first playthrough and a Nissan 350Z on my second.
The sad thing is that all of this was toned down after NFSU2 and has never reached the same level of detail - for any racing game let alone the NFS series. The best example of this I find is skirt modifying. In NFSU2 you can independently choose different front, back, left and right low skirting. In every game I know offering visual customization, including later NFS titles, you can only select a body kit which applies the skirting around each side for you, sometimes including the exhaust and spoiler too. That is always my go-to feature when judging a game on the level of modification. Can I just change just the side skirts? Oh no... Not as good as NFSU2 then.
So for this new 'Need for Speed' I'm very intrigued how it will turn out. I believe it will be a mix of NFSU2 and Need for Speed Most Wanted (the original also from the same generation). There's another argument to be had with the naming of Need for Speed titles but I won't go into that... The reason for this mix is they are similar games however Most Wanted featured cops, which are present in the teaser trailer.
I highly doubt the new game will contain the same level of detail as NFSU2 as this seems more of a niche or 'early 2000's teenager' feature now. However maybe another tie-in to this is the success of the Fast & Furious movies. The original Need for Speed Underground released in 2003, the same year as 2 Fast 2 Furious, and with the massive success of Furious 7 this year, maybe it makes complete sense to reboot this era of the Need for Speed series.